AMFP Member Review Thread

[Kman]

A Machine For Pigs story and imagery was far more horrific than a cheap sanity meter where your vision blurs and you get terrible mouse smoothing.

A Machine For Pigs was also much better than The Dark Descent imo.

this person gets it

i don't get why it's getting so much shit for taking out the sanity meter when that was such a small gameplay element that literally contributed to maybe like 3% of the scariness in the game. like seriously when it came up i didn't think "wow i'm so terrified of the dark and monsters" no i thought "what the fuck is that annoying screen effect - oh it's for your sanity i guess i should just stand in the light for a bit"

seriously it was so basic don't even try to say that the sanity effect had any major effect on the horror in that game

---

Then obviously you didn't play TDD.

The sanity meter was in no way "cheap". It showed that Daniel was only human, and his fears effected him in a huge sense. Staring at the monsters, or staying in the dark too long frightened Daniel to the point of tears, nervous panting, and eventually, pretty much passing out. Tell me, if you were in a similar situation, with similar fears, would you not react in a similar fashion that Daniel did?

Without the sanity meter, you're pretty much a superman, who is afraid of nothing and can just run through anything no matter how terrifying/horrible, which is completely unrealistic.

And also, ah found almost nothing absolutely "horrific" in AMFP, just gross/gruesome/gory.

To say AMFP was better than TDD is to say that you've never played TDD at all.

it's a good idea in concept but they literally just slapped a screen effect on that made everything look blurry and then went "THIS MEANS YOU ARE VERY VERY AFRAID OF THE DARK AND MONSTERS OKAY NOW BELIEVE IT AND BE SCARED OF THEM". if they somehow actually did implement that idea without forcing it down the players throat then it could be cool but it literally just made the game hard to control.

if you properly immerse yourself you shouldn't need some dumb screen effect like that to tell you that you're scared of the monsters - you'd just be scared of the monsters cause they're fucking monsters and they're terrifying looking

without the sanity meter the monsters would still be fucking terrifying and intimidating and could easily overpower you, how would that make you a superhero

i don't know where you're getting any of this

[Gunslingerjh]

I think the problem was that I played Outlast before AMFP. When I saw the graphics of amnesia again, i had a little trouble getting used to it again. I didn't like most of the color layers they added to the game, instead of black there was blue, weird color changes throughout the game...

It also felt a bit too linear for me, amfp didn't give me any real challenges, whereas Outlast kept me on the tip of my seat the whole time, and had me collecting some stuff to progress through the game.
Don't get me wrong, I liked the "no inventory" type of approach, but it could've been much better.

The story was indeed somewhat predictable, but well written. I will never forget the moment you step outside again and see London riddled with pigs!

I liked the music much more than in TDD! The ending music and mors praematura are my favorite ones, so props to Jessica Curry!

It was clear that this game was made by thechineseroom. I still prefer FG's approach on Amnesia!
But now it's time for FG to leave the amnesia universe behind, and make their own new super secret project!

[grrrz]

I don't know where to put this but this blog entry by frictional games dev says something about what they where trying to do here
http://frictionalgames.blogspot.fr/2013/...ctive.html
in regard to these objectives it can be seen as a success.
The problem is close to no challenge and enemies disappearing if we die even once means the feeling of beeing less involved in the world, the player to be less key to the progression of the story.
I totally agree doing the same section over and over (after dying mainly) is awful, but if all threat dissapear instantly whenever you get killed, how can you still be afraid?
for me "the dream machine" is a good exemple of a puzzle oriented game where the puzzle part serves perfectly the story, and never really feels too obscure.

[VirtuallyJesse]

Just finished the game, just want to post some of my thoughts.

Completed the game in under 4 hours according to steam.. not happy at all. I don't think I got a fright once outside of the jump-loud-noise scares. The original Amnesia took me 10~ hours to complete because I was so scared and moved so slowly. Nothing like that in this game. The flickering light every time an enemy is near? Not only does it feel ripped straight from FEAR, it was the one bad thing about FEAR. Why would you want to know when shits about to go down? Ruins any suspense. I thought the puzzles were bad, not that there was many of them, or any complex. With very limited interactivity with the environment (oil, matches, moving objects, why remove this?) you are just walking from point A to B while someone throws fancy words at you and tries to get you to read notes with more fancy words.

One positive thing about this game is the audio. Amazing, Dear Esther had fantastic audio as well, it was to be expected. But this feels like a Dear Esther part 2 with Amnesia slapped across the top. The Chinese Room, you're good, but I really don't like how you handled Amnesia. Hope Frictional Games next game redeems my disappointment. I have faith! 8-)

[Macgyverthehero]

So, I just beat the game today, and I have a review:

I liked the setting of the game; we finally got to the place where the last two protagonists in frictional games's games originated (Daniel from Amnesia, and Phillip from the Penumbra Trilogy). Exploring the factory was quite creepy and there was not many, but still some moments where I stood still for five minutes before doing anything.

For the story I did not get some of the things before the events of the game, however I liked the many references to the last game and the reference to World War One's Battle of the Somme. The manpigs in the game were not as scary as the servants in the first game, but it was very interesting and cute to see them interacting with each other in one scene in the game.

The audio in the game I must say was great, I loved the sound effects and the music by Jessica Curry was spot on and fitting to each part of the game. The menu music somewhat reminded me of a theme you would hear in one of the Sly Cooper games or in an Indiana Jones movie.

One other thing I liked was that I actually saw people in the game, so I knew I was not alone in this adventure and that others would experience the same horror as I have.

For gameplay there was some pretty clever puzzles, like the one where you spill the corrosive material on the lock, and use the spotlight to melt it. I was able to recognize many parts of the game that I remembered through the media we were shown in the pictures and the two trailers. One downfall of the gameplay is that you cannot pick up most objects anymore unless it was a key item to solve a puzzle or a chair/stool, so no more throwing bottles or using crates to cover yourself between you and a monster.

For the whole "No inventory", "Unlimited Lantern Power", or "No Sanity" features, I did not mind them as I was too busy finding my way where to go in the large factory of slaughter. Who needs the game to tell you how sane you are? Your sanity meter is permanently installed in yourself to tell you if your losing sanity.

For the scare level, I must say that the game was not as scary as the last game, but still had many moments where I stood still hiding for five minutes before moving again, moments where I went "what the fuck was that?", Nope.avi, and stared for the fact that I thought I saw something.

For improvements I wish the game had more monsters in it that you encountered, more interactable objects, and a less confusing backstory.

I rate this game from 1-10, a 7/10.

[MonoxideDGK]

You aren't criticizing anything, you are just a whining idiot who thinks original Amnesia was all about oil, throwing stuff, inventory and bloody sanity meter. But by all means, please continue to post here, I actually like that your kind of people dislikes this game.

That is such a narrow minded opinion. Do you honestly think that the people who don't like AMFP because of these reasons are just whining idiots? What is it about your opinion of the game that makes it so right and reasonable? I could turn around and say that anyone that liked the fact that it a was a story driven, interactive book with few scares instead of a video game should read instead of playing video games, because you 'actually enjoyed something with no game play elements' but I will not say anything even remotely along those lines because everyone is entitled to an opinion and I am not an idiot that shits on others views...

[Lleviathyn]

The flickering light every time an enemy is near? Not only does it feel ripped straight from FEAR, it was the one bad thing about FEAR. Why would you want to know when shits about to go down?

Do you not remember the monster spawning noises that gave you a warning? Personally, I find this flickering a LOT scarier because you have no idea where they are except close.

My only problems with the monsters was the lack of stalking/chase music. That kinda took the scare factor down quite a bit.

As for the inventory, I agree with Kman. In TDD, I finished with around 70 tinderboxes and 5 bottles of oil, so I was never too worried about oil consumption. I'm partly glad it was removed as it reduced immersion, but I liked those complex puzzles that made you think.

[Alardem]

One difference between this and FEAR: Alma never attacked you, and you always had guns, grenades and kung-fu. Amnesia doesn't give you such luxuries.

[Cuyir]

Actually Alma did attack you...and also she did more than that, she

Spoiler below!

literally rapes you at the end of FEAR 2....

I love the FEAR series and sort of like the third one. But this thread isn't about that, sorry lol.

[Alardem]

Actually Alma did attack you...and also she did more than that, she

Spoiler below!

literally rapes you at the end of FEAR 2....

I love the FEAR series and sort of like the third one. But this thread isn't about that, sorry lol.

Yeah, there's a lot of technicalities regarding Alma's relation to you. But suffice to say, AMFP still manages to engage my sense of fear and doubt.

I haven't replayed AMFP yet. It's short enough to run through in a single night, but I think I'll wait until the weekend. Still trying to digest everything. Bioshock Infinite turned more rotten the longer I'd processed it - that hasn't happened yet for Amnesia...